Sarah vs The Ghost of Things to Come
by nattylovesjordy
Summary: Sarah goes through a few rough dreams that stop her from making a large mistake.


**Note: **Thanks to BillAtWork for the multitude of ideas for this and for the support and help that you provided!  
**Time setting:** Everything in italix (the dream) is 10 years from now. Everything else is just sometime after Chuck vs. the Marlin.  
**Something you need to know: **Everything in the italicized writing are the dreams and what goes on in it. Anything not in that portion happens while she is still awake and is the present. Everything in the dreams is in the future 10 years from now.  
**Characters/Pairings: ** Chuck/Sarah with mentions of Devon/Ellie and Morgan/Anna.

Sarah vs The Ghost of Things to Come

"Look, Chuck. I just can't talk about this right now, okay?"

Chuck and Sarah had just returned from another successful mission and Chuck was pushing her to talk about their hopefully mutual feelings for each other.

Chuck hated having to watch Sarah use her physical assets to get answers out of men, but seeing as it was his job to sit in the van and watch the video feeds of everything, he had no other choice.

Watching her with those men knowing that he couldn't stop her made him sick-- watching her with those men knowing that she'd never be like that with him made him even sicker.

Once watching her seduce the men proved to be too much for Chuck to take, he pushed open the back doors to the van and started to get out when Casey came over the radio feed.

Casey demanded Chuck to get back in the van, some how knowing that he was exiting, so he could make sure no guards were coming his way.

Unwillingly, Chuck obeyed. As he watched Casey's screen, he couldn't help but watch Sarah out of the corner of his eye.

On the ride back, both Casey and Sarah noticed Chuck's underwear in a bundle. Clearly, he was unhappy. Silently, it was agreed between the two agents that Sarah would go home with Chuck to talk him out of it.

She knew it wouldn't help for him to be rejected once again, but she still went with him in hope of somehow cheering him up. And so now they were here, in Chuck's bedroom, having the beginnings of a conversation that only one of them wanted to have.

"Why not Sarah? Because I know-" Chuck's sentence was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Hey Chuck, Sarah." Devon greeted as he welcomed himself into the room. "Me and the lady were just about to watch a movie. Would you two like to join?"

Sarah threw on a smile. "That'd be great." she answered, grabbing Chuck by the hand and walking out with him.

It turned out to be a very boring movie, and with the addition of the long day, Sarah allowed herself to relax enough to fall into a dream as she slept.

_It was another typical Saturday afternoon at the Bartowski house. _

_The house was one that every little girl dreamed of having when she was younger. It had a large and healthy green lawn in the backyard, along with a nicely sized deck with chairs and a table. It appeared to be a two story house with a lot of room._

_Little Lilly and Katie were chasing Uncle Morgan and Uncle John in the back yard as Ellie Woodcomb and Anna Grimes chatted on the deck as they nursed a glass of wine._

_Devon and Chuck were over on the grill preparing the steaks as the women relaxed and the children played._

_Sarah smiled as she studied Katie, he daughter. She was 6 years old and already had a smile that matched her fathers. She had curly blond hair and lively brown eyes, but looked identical to Sarah. Her left knee was red with a rather large brown scab in the middle from a fall she had a few days back._

_Sarah remembered the day that little Katie had fallen. They had been at the park. Katie had gotten so excited when Chuck had said they could get an ice cream from the ice cream truck that she ran over as fast as she could, causing her to trip on an unexpected crack in the cement. Chuck, who wasn't far behind her, ran up to her and kissed her boo-boo over and over again to make it better. Along with the continuous kisses and the ice cream cone, Chuck had made Katie's "owie" all better. He really was the perfect dad and husband._

_Lilly, her sister, was eight. She had curly brown hair with bright blue eyes and the identical smile. From the way she was play fighting with Uncle John, Sarah could tell that she took after herself. As she left Uncle John and climbed up on Uncle Morgan's back, her little pink flowered shirt rode up in the back, reveling a small birthmark in the shape of a deformed heart under her shoulder blades._

_From their boo-boos to their fighting skills, their children were perfect, as was her husband, and Sarah couldn't be any happier in the moment. _

_"Daddy! Daddy!" Katie yelled with a smile as she ran up to Chuck and grabbed onto his leg._

_Chuck smiled at the little 6 year old girl and picked her up, securing her legs around the side of his waist. "Yes Kate?"_

_"Uncle Morgan said that after dinner, he's going to kick your butt at video games."_

_"Is that right," He chuckled as he set the little girl down. "Well, you go tell him that it's on."_

_Everything was perfect-- the whole family was there and everyone was having a good time-- until Sarah noticed that she wasn't actually there, that she was just watching on from the garden, her presence unknown._

_Confused, Sarah looked around to where she was bound to be. Finally, she let out a sigh of relief when she spotted herself bringing out a tray of fruit from the house._

_She looked like a slightly aged Sarah, whose looks were carried out in Lilly as a younger version._

_"Hey Chuck? How much longer." Sarah asked as she sat the table._

_"About fifteen more minutes, babe. Do you think you can get a plate ready?"_

_"Sure, Honey."_

_"Thanks Jill." Devon randomly thanked._

_Jill? Sarah was completely confused. That was not Jill, that was Sarah. But then, right before her very own observing eyes, the woman who Sarah believed was herself morphed into a different blond woman who really was Jill._

_Oh, if looks could kill, Jill would be brutally killed from the unseen look Sarah shot. How could he have married her!? Of all people! He married the female version of Bryce Larkin! It tied her stomach in knots and cry all at the same time._

_Now, upon the realization that that wasn't her, she had questions disrupt her plans of killing. What was she doing here anyways? Why was she apart from the group in the garden? Why wasn't she with Chuck and the kids that looked like her?_

_Suddenly, the answer hit her smack in the gut. She had left Chuck a little over 10 years ago for another assignment. She traded this life for her life in the CIA which was anything but rewarding, and was now greatly regretting it._

_Abruptly, she was pulled from the garden without being noticed and thrown into a dull, gray hallway. On the wall was a large rectangular window._

_Peering into the window, Sarah saw a lifeless form of herself on a sterile bed, all alone._

_The sign on the door informed her that she was in a mental asylum, most likely from having a psychotic break from everything that she had endured._

_Right there in the hall, watching her lifeless self in the bed, Sarah begun to cry._

_Unexpectedly, she was pulled from that scene and thrown into a bright white room. It was a small room with two open doors._

_The first door lead to what her life could be if she had actually stayed with Chuck. The second door led her to what she had just seen; the lifeless form laying in the stiff bed._

_Without blinking, Sarah rushed to the door that led her to Chuck. As she ran to it, it seemed to get further and further away until it finally slammed shut right before she made it to it._

_"Nooo!" She cried as she crumpled on the floor in a ball._

All of the sudden, she wasn't on the floor in front of a missed opportunity, or watching her life after she left Chuck. Instead, she was lying on a vaguely familiar couch with Chuck next to her, crouching on the ground, trying to wake her from her nightmare.

"Sarah, it's okay. You just had a bad dream, it's okay." She subconsciously heard him say as he fiercely wrapped his strong arms around her, engulfing her.

Sarah shook and cried in his arms for what seemed like an eternity until she pulled herself together and looked Chuck in the eye to her best ability with her blurry vision from the tears.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked, the love dripping from his voice and touch.

Subtly, she shook her head yes as she whispered, "I'm ready to talk about it now."

Slowly, she told him of the dream at the house and how it started out that _she_ was married to him, but then another woman, not mentioning that it was Jill, was married to him and she was ripped away from it. She then went on to explain how she saw her lifeless self and then was given the opportunity to change, but got that taken away from her too.

He found it surprising that she was so shaken up about a dream like that, especially since day in and day out she denied her feelings for him. He expected it to be a dream about the ghosts in her past instead of the ghosts of her future.

"I-I don't want that to happen." She admitted, showing her very weak side.

Chuck was taken a back from seeing this emotional Sarah and hearing her admissions, but he was grateful for the opportunity to break down more of her walls.

Chuck tightened his loving grip on her and kissed the crown of her head. "Don't worry, Sarah. I won't let anything like that happen."

Being in Chuck's arms and having his assurance that he'd keep her safe, Sarah let go of the tenseness that was built up inside knowing that someday, she'd get the chance to have a wonderfully beautiful life with the man of her dreams.


End file.
